Dmitri Mikhalchenko - The head of the holding company

Biography:

Born in 1972; He started his way to business in St. Petersburg from the post of the director of the floating restaurant "Aquarelle", where the senior staff of the St. Petersburg Federal Security Service Directorate gathered. It was mentioned that Mikhalchenko managed to enlist the support of the certain FSB agents due to his family connections – which ones were not mentioned in the press. Mikhalchenko got acquaintances in the security agencies and in the early 2000's he was entered in the board of directors, and then co-founded the non-government organization "Regional Non-government Fund for Support of the Federal Security Service and Foreign Intelligence Service” (ROF) and de facto became its leader. The Fund included the following range of enterprises: “Russian Marine Register of the Shipping", “Telecominvest”, “Baltika” brewery company, Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Admiralty Shipyards", "Stepan Razin", the holding company “Leninets”, Interregional Investment Bank, State Unitary Enterprise "Oktyabrskaya Railway" and etc. In the early 2000-s Mikhalchenko also co-founded the security company "Magistral", created by Nikolay Negodovyi, the former deputy head of the FSB St. Petersburg and Leningrad region in the late 1990's - the company was originally created for the employment of the retiring officers from KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In 2001 Dmitry Mikhalchenko established a Management Company "Forum", which became a subsidiary of ROF, and then together with the head of the Oktyabrskaya Railway Gennady Komarov he made an exclusive lease contract of the terminal areas. According to the contract the company "Forum" was a single tenant of more than 12 thousand square meters of the terminal areas (Moskovsky Rail Terminal, Vitebsky Rail Terminal, Ladozhsky Rail Terminal, Finlyandsky Rail Terminal and Baltiysky Rail Terminal), for this the company was to reconstruct these areas, investing around $ 6 million. In return, "Forum" got an opportunity to collect rent from all the merchants who wanted to work at the railway stations, and the security agency "Magistral" took these objects under its protection.

In 2010, along with the objects of Oktyabrskaya Railway, “Magistral” also protected JSC “Kanonersky Shipyard”, Kirov Plant, research and manufacturing association Plant “Izmeron”, parking area in front of the Federal Security Service on Liteiny, 4 in St. Petersburg. FSB Administration transfers to the company headed by Mikhalchenko 5000 rubles per month for each parking place, whereas the protection was earlier carried out by Central Internal Affairs Directorate on more favorable terms. Also the Federal Security Service dining room (where one of the firms associated with Dmitry Mikhalchenko currently operates) was renovated on the money of the Fund.

In the summer of 2005 the company "Forum" announced about the purchase of 85% of JSC "Spinning mill named after Kirov", on its basis Dmitri Mikhalchenko decided to create a Russian-Chinese joint venture on sewing work wear.

In spring 2006, "Forum" together with several other organizations, was the founder of an autonomous non-profit partnership "OKO", which launched a campaign to struggle with counterfeit audiovisual products. "OKO" representatives initiated a series of police checks in the network chains in Petersburg, selling CDs.

There is no information on the marital status of Dmitry Mikhalchenko in the open sources of information. Source: www.rospres.com, www.mcds.ru

Dossier:

In the press Dmitry Mikhalchenko is often called "the son of Lieutenant Schmidt", referring to his activities in the organization “Administration of the "Regional Non-government Fund for Support of the Federal Security Service and Foreign Intelligence Service”. According to the journalists, this structure had the status of an autonomous non-profit organization (ANO), juristically not related to FSB (Federal Security Service), but Mikhalchenko claimed it to be a personal project of the acting head of FSB Nikolai Patrushev. Due to a suitable name of the Fund and monetary reward, Mikhalchenko was able to convince the administration of the Oktyabrskaya Railway to give him the areas of all stations in St. Petersburg into a long term lease. Mikhalchenko’s patronage in this issue was provided by Basil Golubtsov, the Deputy Chief of the road for passenger traffic. In January 2001 Mikhalchenko registered a number of companies: "Shopping Complex of the Moskovsky Rail Terminal", " Shopping Center of the Moskovsky Rail Terminal", " Shopping Center of the Baltiysky Rail Terminal ", "Shopping Complex of the Baltiysky Rail Terminal ", " Shopping Center of the Vitebsky Rail Terminal ", "Shopping Complex of Vitebsky Rail Terminal ". Subsequently Mikhalchenko combined commercial areas on

The Moskovsky, Vitebsky, Baltiysky, Ladozhsky, and Finlyandsky Rail Terminals were under the control of his company "Forum". Journalists wrote that rents for Mikhalchenko were seriously reduced. Mikhalchenko tried to arrange the rent at the Leningrad Station in Moscow, but the management of the Russian Traffic Ministry denied his appeal. Source: www.pravda.ru from 04. 12. 2002

The press wrote that Dmitry Mikhalchenko could be involved in the murder of the director of security agency “Baltic Escort” Roman Tsepov (poisoned on 11.09.2004), famous for his connections in the higher echelons of power and personal friendship with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. It was reported that Mikhalchenko envied Tsepov and wanted to take over the part of his informal business. On the day of his death Tsepov visited only two organizations – Central Internal Affairs Directorate and St.Petersburg Federal Security Service Directorate, where he drank tea (the poison was poured into a drink). At a meeting with Tsepov in the FSB on the day of his death there was Yuri Ignaschenkov, the leader of FSB, Alexei Shamanin which was then the Chief of the FSB's economic security and Dmitri Mikhalchenko. After the death of Tsepov, many different businesses of the late Tsepov were passed into the hands of Mikhalchenko. For example, about 50 of the St. Petersburg companies, which previously used the services of Tsepov to protect their business interests, chose the company of Dmitry Mikhalchenko as their "protection" after the assassination. After Tsepov’s death, Dmitry Mikhalchenko was closely connected with the head of the Federal Protection Service Murov. The press reported that Mikhalchenko was also forced to adopt the security company "Baltic Escort” with its relations to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Nikolai Kuznetsov (according to the Department for Organized Crime Control one of the leaders of the Permian organized criminal group) - the former right-hand of Tsepov and later the head of the “Baltic Escort”, became Mikhalchenko’s subordinate. It was reported that Mikhalchenko inherited other regional resources of Tsepov, among them “The Agency of Journalistic Investigations”. But Mikhalchenko did not use the police vector of Tsepov, leaving him at the background, and focused in the direction of the FSB. Nevertheless, some Senior officers from Central Internal Affairs Directorate continued to confirm to Mikhalchenko, including the Chief of Directorate for Combating Economic Crimes Sergei Storozhenko and the deputy police chief of Central Internal Affairs Directorate Oleg Makhno (with their help Mikhalchenko tried to capture the audio-videoproduction business). Source: >www.wek.ru from 18.12.2007, www.vslux.ru from 17.10.2006

Dmitry Mikhalchenko was accused of dishonest business methods. It was reported that Mikhalchenko started business talks with the demonstration of his FSB ID officer card and assured his interlocutor that he acts as a trustee for the benefit of the acting Director of the Russian Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev, the head of St Petersburg FSB Yuri Ignaschenkov, or Andrey Rutchev who later replaced him. During such meetings, businessmen usually paid money and the authorities signed dubious documents from the point of the law. According to the press, the system, built by Mikhalchenko worked because the part of money paid by businessmen was given to the middle-level agents of the security department, who could confirm Mikhalchenko’s “authorities” if required. Security defence in case of severe conflicts was promised by the State Duma deputy Denis Volchek and the leader of Tambov group Vladimir Kumarin. The biggest campaign organized by Dennis Volchek, Dmitry Mikhalchenko and Vladimir Kumarin was an attempt to capture the market of audio and video products. After Vladimir Kumarin was arrested and charged with the raider captures, mass media reported that prosecution would be also interested in Dmitry Mikhalchenko, but this did not happen. Source: www.wek.ru from 18.12.2007

Not entirely legitimate activities of Dmitry Mikhalchenko were revealed by the Prosecutor General Yury Chaika in his report to the President. According to Chaika, some high-ranked officials from the law enforcement agencies in Petersburg blocked the security department struggle against the "Tambov" criminal community and its leader, Vladimir Kumarin (Barsukov). The acting Attorney General noticed the special role of Dmitry Mikhalchenko (had the nickname “Dima Krikun”) in maintaining contacts between the government security department and the criminal groups and accused Mikhalchenko of solving problems by paying hundreds of millions of dollars. After several publications of this information in the press, Mikhalchenko tried to put pressure on their leaders to prevent its publicity. Besides Mikhalchenko, some other Kumarin’s companions were mentioned in the report - Colonel Dmitry Kuznetsov, the head of the FSB Economic Security Service in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region and his colleague in the struggle against organized crime groups Colonel Alexei Gurenkov.

In addition, Vladimir Kumarin, Dmitri Kuznetsov and Dmitry Mikhalchenko together (each used his opportunities according to their status and position) provided a "shelter" to a number of companies and firms engaged in dubious transactions in the St. Petersburg Customs. Among these companies are mentioned, in particular, "Anri-Center" and “Intrans”, as well as the head of “Intrans” Vadim Mamchur. Since spring 2007, the customs authorities inspected "Anri-Center". As a result, a criminal case, investigated by the FSB, was initiated on the basis of the criminal charges with the smuggling of the fuel.

People involved in the case were listed in the mass media - the former head of the FSB Petersburg Alexei Shamanin, Dmitri Kuznetsov and Dmitry Mikhalchenko. Source: www.konkretno.ru from 08.10.2007

It was reported that it was Dmitry Mikhalchenko who opposed to the General Prosecutor Office to arrest the leader of the Tambov organized criminal group Vladimir Kumarin. Contacts between Kumarin and Mikhalchenko emerged at the time when the law enforcement agencies began to expose the criminal activities of the leader of the Tambov group. At this time,

Mikhalchenko offered his help to Kumarin at the level of FSB. Because of the approaching judicial perspectives, Kumarin accepted his offer, instead playing the role of the shelter, behind which Mikhalchenko run his illegal business.

The alliance was concluded at the time when the General Prosecutor Office sanctioned an arrest of Kumarin’s deputies - Alexander Baskakov, Vyacheslav Drokov and the Regional Legislative Assembly deputy Andrei Rybkin. Mikhalchenko developed a program of so-called false objects through close agents from the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region and Federal Security Service Directorate in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region. Relying on the former Chief of the Economic Security Service - Alexey Shamanin and his subordinates, Economic Security Service of the FSB scanned information and executed counteractions to the agents intrigueing against Kumarin through Central Internal Affairs Directorate and the Head department of the Minestry of Internal Affairs in North-Western Federal District (the last two structures were connected with Mikhalchenko indirectly through his deputy – the head of the Private Security Agency “Baltic Escort” Nikolai Kuznetsov).

Several criminal figures were chosen for imputing resonance crimes. Thus, the shooting of Sergei Vasiliev – the owner of the oil terminal, which happened in May 2006, was planned to impute to one of the owners of St. Petersburg port Ilya Traber.

Alexey Travin, the agent on priority cases in the Department for Organized Crime Control was responsible for this task. The discovery of a cache of Chechen weapons under the city Luga just before the summit was imputed to a thief in law Andrew Miroedov (nickname Mirych).

The agent of the Head department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Andrey Pichushkin was trying to impute to the member of the “Malyshevskaya” organized criminal group a series of raider attacks carried out by Kumarin de facto. Source: FLB from 20.11.2006, “Leningradskaya Pravda” from 04.09.2007

In 2006 Dmitry Mikhalchenko visited Arab Emirates and the capital of the UK London, where in Osterley he looked for the real estate for ? 460,000 for Alexei Shamanin, the former head of the FSB Economic Security Service in St. Petersburg, which was later transferred to the FSB department in Ivanovskaya Oblast. Source: FLB from 20.11.2006, www.gryzlov.ru from 21.11.2006

Dmitri Mikhalchenko was accused of organizing illegal inspection of the banking sector with the help of the FSB Economic Security Service in Petersburg. In order to get large cash flows, Mikhalchenko decided to use blackmail against small banks in St. Petersburg. Some of them, not waiting for visits from the FSB and searches, went under the “shelter” of Mikhalchenko and Shamanin, who was then the head of the St. Petersburg FSB.

"Petersburg Social Commercial Bank" didn’t yield to blackmail, claiming that $ 5 million, which Mikhalchenko demanded, was too much for such a bank as “PSCB”. After their refusal to pay, searches were carried out in the bank and the managers were prosecuted for the tax crimes and money laundering obtained by criminal activities. Source: "Vsluh.ru" from 17.10.2006, “Leningradskaya Pravda” from 17.10.2006

Dmitry Mikhalchenko was accused of attempts to arrange redistribution in the various spheres of economic activity, particularly on the market of audiovisual products.

Mikhalchenko entered into business cooperation with the famous satirist Semen Altov, whose son Paul Altov headed the extensive anti-counterfeit campaign, having become the CEO of the non-government partnership “OKO” which was controlled by Dmitry Mikhalchenko. In St. Petersburg enforcement actions and administrative pressure began in respect of the retailers selling audio and video production.

The trading network "505" and the company "Trading House "Orby" became the victims of the raiding. Blackmail scheme was as follows: the trading networks were offered to buy products only from certain vendors, and were to stick the registration stamps with the sign “OKO” on them, which automatically made even counterfeit products legal. The Central Internal Affairs Directorate agents were sent to confiscate all products to the offices of those who did not agree with Mikhalchenko’s terms.

The head of the 1st department of the 8th operational search department of the Department for Organized Crime Control in Central Internal Affairs Directorate Alexander Poygin, who was close to Mikhalchenko, sanctioned execution of the ordered actions. Source: "Petersburg News» № 38, 08.10.2007

In 2007, press reported that the administrative resource of Mikhalchenko in the St. Petersburg branch of the FSB is close to zero due to HR transfers in the administration, that the FSB officers of various levels treated him with poorly concealed irritation because Mikhalchenko promoted himself too obvious on the topic of the state security agencies, and tried to limit the possible contacts directly with Mikhalchenko and his associates in the struggle. Source: "News of St. Petersburg» № 32 (509) from 27.08.2007

In 2008 Dmitry Mikhalchenko in the press was accused of premeditated bankruptcy of multimedia network "Desyatka" in the interests of his company "Forum". Kirill Rodchenko, the head of the corporate debt recovery department of the collection agency “RRK” made a statement to the press. He claimed that CJSC "Desyatka" owes its creditors 142 million rubles, and the process of its bankruptcy was initiated by the two major creditors - LLC "Galactica" and LLC “Finansovyi Upravlyaushyi” ("Financial Manager"). According to Rodchenko, a former major creditor of "Desyatka" - LLC "Eco Service", assigned his rights to claim debt to a third party - LLC "Galactica", which was affiliated with the major founder of CJSC "Desyatka" - LLC "Eco Service plus". Both companies were registered on the same person and by the same address, situating in the administration of Mikhalchenko’s “Forum”. The second major creditor, LLC “Finansovyi Upravlyaushyi”, according to EGRYL (Uniform State Register of Legal Entities), is a 100% daughter company of the “Holding company “Forum”.

In court LLC "Galactica" was represented by the lawyers who previously represented the interests of the "Holding Company "Forum". Shortly after the bankruptcy, the company LLC "Roznichnye Technologii" (Retail Technology), affiliated with the structures of Dmitry Mikhalchenko, announced the opening of the new stores in places where the points of sales of "Desyatka" were previously situated. Source: "Kommersant» № 229 (4284) from 08.12.2009, www.rospres.com

In July 2008, another scandal happened with Dmitri Mikhalchenko. Representatives of the movement “Against the seizure of lakes" arrived in the village Ovsyanoe to the lake Nakhimovskoye (Vyborgsky district, Leningrad Oblast) and found out that one of the summer residents illegally seized and fenced the lake area. Community leaders and Irina Andrianova among them, found out that the private house and grounds are owned by Dmitry Mikhalchenko. The guards of the house rudely treated the community leaders who also brought the journalists from the TV channel "SТО" – the guards took away the microphone, and then, according to Andrianova, Mikhalchenko phoned to the TV channel "STO" and the management of the TV channel prohibited the journalist from making this story go on the air. Later, the press reported that Dmitry Mikhalchenko in May 2010 appealed to the Vyborgskii court to acknowledge his rights of the ownership of the shore of the lake Nakhimovskoye in the village Ovsyanoe. Journalists concluded that currently the bank does not belong to him and his guards’actions for its protection are arbitrary. Source: "New Newspaper» № № 37 from 27.05.2010, www.russia.gkontrol.ru from 07.07.2009

In the middle of 2009 the press wrote that Dmitry Mikhalchenko carried out raider capture of the “Petersburg Cargo Transport Enterprise № 9”. Mikhalchenko bought more than half of this company shares through fictitious people and afterwards all company’s property was sold to a limited liability company (the name of the company was not named in the open sources of information), which actually belonged to Dmitri Mikhalchenko. The deal cost only 14 million rubles; the sale was illegal, as the deal was carried out without the decision of the shareholders’ meeting. One of the major shareholders of the company, Roman Loginov, appealed to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in Nevsky district, to the city and the district prosecutor's office, but his appeal to initiate a criminal case was denied. Source: www.rospres.com

In the middle of 2010 the mass media mentioned Dmitry Mikhalchenko as a co-owner of the “United Center of Documents”, which was created on the territory of the JSC “Spinning mill named after Kirov” (abbreviated as PNK). Though, LLC “United Center of Documents” is oficially owned by Igor Rodionov, who is on the list of the affiliates of JSC “Spinning mill named after Kirov” (abbreviated as PNK), the complex itself is the part of the holding company "Forum" owned by Dmitry Mikhalchenko. Reconstruction of the buildings in PNK was started last year, leaving only 6 of the 12 acres of land for the production of yarn. The rest of the industrial sites of the plant were planned to lease. Government organizations will bring Mikhalchenko and his colleagues about 30 million rubles per month. The income from the commercial tenants was not announced, but it is planned that the rates for them would be higher than for government structures. Earlier, Mikhalchenko gave the idea for establishing the Russian-Chinese production association as an argument for a lease of the industrial sites of the plant. Source: "Delovoy Petersburg» № 106 (3164) from 28.06. 2010